


like a house on fire

by defcontwo



Series: hold on to what we are, hold on to your heart [3]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2013-06-13
Packaged: 2017-12-14 21:55:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defcontwo/pseuds/defcontwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn’t have had to go around shooting people all the time.” Or: the one where Red X and Batgirl get laid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like a house on fire

“I don’t think you understand,” Batgirl says, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth, not cowed an inch by the ring of mobsters surrounding them. “This isn’t good cop, bad cop.” 

Red X flexes his hands, that familiar itch beneath his skin when he can’t wait to throw a punch, to feel the crack of skin on bone - anyone in their line of work who says they don’t enjoy that moment at least a little is lying through their goddamn teeth. 

“I’m bad cop, she’s worse cop,” he says, jerking his head in Batgirl’s direction. She laughs, light and carefree and so out of place in this dark Gotham alley, and tosses an appreciative nod in his direction. 

The lead mobster lets out a disbelieving snort half a second before they leap into action. 

Five minutes later, there’s a ring of men surrounding them in various states of hurt and groaning, and Batgirl lets out a victory whoop as they both start pulling zipties out of their utility belts. 

“Want to call it in?” 

Red X digs a disposable phone out of his pocket and dials the number to reach Harvey Bullock. “Harvey, my man, I got you the best birthday present.” 

“My birthday ain’t for another month, X, what do you want,” Harvey growls down the phone. 

Jason has long since started to wonder if Bullock has played connect the dots yet. If, at the very least, Bullock wonders at how the vigilante known as Red X who likes to give him a hard time acts a whole lot like the Robin who used to enjoy giving him a hard time so many years ago. 

“Some of Cassamento’s finest in the alleyway off of 5th and H. We did a shoddy job with the wrapping paper -- personally, I blame Batgirl,” Jason says, and grins as Steph turns and gives him the finger. “But there’s a little something-something on top to make up for it.” 

Steph tucks a USB drive full of evidence against the Cassamento clan into the leader’s jacket pocket. 

“Don’t forget to frisk them down or else you might not find the best part of your present. Later, Harve,” Jason says, snapping the phone shut and tossing it in the nearest dumpster. 

“Shall we call it a night, Batgirl?” 

“Only if you apologize for the slight against my gift wrapping skills, X,” Steph says, pulling out a line and grapple. 

“You have my deepest apologies, Blondie, from the bottom of my dark, cruel heart.”

“Asshole,” Steph says, but it is mostly fond. 

By the time Bullock arrives with backup to pick up the mobsters, there’s no sign of either of them. 

\+ 

The thing is, he didn’t sign onto working with Oracle to get stuck with a partner out in the field. Cass didn’t need him out there watching her back; their fighting styles were too different and he only would have gotten in her way. 

The rest of the family - well, even on Jason’s best days, dealing with Dick Grayson is not unlike repeatedly prodding a gaping wound and expecting different results each time. Something had fallen apart on that side of things, that much Jason knows, but the details are a mystery to him and he isn’t about to walk up to Wayne Tower and go asking about it. 

Whatever happened, Drake fucked off halfway across the world and B’s demon brat took up the Robin mantle, with Dickie playing at some sort of twisted role reversal of the cape and cowl duo. Now Robin is prickly and violent and too good for his age, and Batman smiles too easily and moves with a light-footedness that Bruce Wayne never would have been able to manage. 

Mostly, Jason stays out of their way completely. Looking at them hurts more than he’d like to admit. 

He wonders about Drake, sometimes, because he feels - not obligated, not exactly, but that he owes the other boy something. He doesn’t like feeling as if he owes Drake, not any better than he likes the grudging respect he’s come to feel for his replacement. 

And then there’s Stephanie Brown. Stephanie Brown, who found herself with the Batgirl costume and no explanation as Cass took off for Hong Kong, and who decided to make it work no matter how many people didn’t think she could do it. 

She is determined and sharp and more vicious than anyone gives her credit for, and Jason likes her immediately. He sees all the ways in which Bruce must have feared they were too alike but it’s mostly bullshit. Steph’s got a better head on her shoulders than he ever did. 

One mission together becomes two and two becomes five and before he knows it, he has a partner out there. He has someone he can lean on and crack terrible jokes with and it’s not like the old days, but in a lot of ways, it’s _better_ than the old days. 

With Batgirl and Red X around, Batman and Robin can eat their heart out. 

+

“You seemed kinda pissed off out there tonight, Blondie,” Jason says, wrapping his knuckles in the dim light of Oracle’s cave. 

“It’s nothing, it’s just,” Steph says, “something my mom said to me earlier kind of stuck with me.” 

Jason looks up from his handiwork and gives her a pointed look. 

Steph rolls her eyes. “You need to be careful, blah blah, college boys, blah blah, don’t get knocked up again, blah blah.” 

Jason snorts. “What college boys? You spend all your time with a murderous high school dropout.” 

“You are _not_ the only man in my life, Jason Peter Todd,” Steph says archly. 

“Ah, yes. The hot detective that you refuse to admit you want to bang like a screen door in a hurricane.” 

Steph laughs and it echoes in the cavernous room. “I cannot believe the shit that comes out of your mouth sometimes. You’re from Jersey, not a Tennessee Williams play.” 

“It's Gotham, so," Jason says, flapping one hand idly. "Potayto, potahto, really."

“Do you ever get the feeling that -- “ Steph starts and then stops, slanting a glance at him that lets him know that this conversation is about to get more serious than she’d like. “That there’s this expectation that if you have. Well, you know. If you have a certain kind of history, than sex isn’t something you should want for yourself. Not in a way that’s uncomplicated and fun.” 

He grunts because they’ve both talked about this and talked around this. The minefield that is their combined sexual history already came tumbling out one night when Steph’s mom was working an all-night shift at the hospital and they got tipsy in her kitchen off of a two dollar bottle of wine from the corner store. 

It’s not something that they bring up often but he understands what she’s feeling all too well. 

“Ugh, I just want to get laid, is that so wrong?” 

“You do know that was your outside voice, right?” Jason asks. 

“I didn’t, actually, but I refuse to be embarrassed about it.” 

“I mean, if you’re propositioning me...” 

Steph smacks him hard in the shoulder where a bruise was already forming and Jason winces. “Hey, I’m just sayin’, I wouldn’t say no.” 

He is kidding, mostly, because while Steph is beautiful and funny and the closest thing he’s ever had to a best friend in his life, there is a current of something between them. A sameness, an uncanny sort of understanding that runs deep and it makes it hard for him to think of her as anything other than a missing piece of family that he didn’t even know had gotten lost along the way. 

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna say no to the Robincest. It hasn’t exactly worked out so hot for me in the past.” 

Jason grins because _Robincest_ , honestly, where does she come up with these things. 

“Look, Blondie. A wise woman once told me that there’s no point in holding the things that you want up to what you think is expected of you because usually what’s expected of you is complete bullshit.” 

“I’m pretty sure that I didn’t use the words ‘complete bullshit,’ little bird,” Barbara says, startling them from the doorway to the locker area. 

“Pretty sure that’s what you meant, Babs,” Jason says. 

“Proxy has already passed out on me over there. Both of you, go home and get some sleep, it’s late.” 

They both pick their tired bodies up off of the locker room benches and make for the door, waving at Barbara and a fast asleep Wendy on their way out. 

They are both of them too exhausted to do much more than grunt their goodbyes as they go their separate ways, and for now, the conversation is shelved. 

\+ 

It starts again several months later when Steph sends him a frantic message late on a Friday afternoon asking him to meet her at their favorite diner asap. 

“Hot detective asked me out on a date tonight,” Steph says. 

Jason whistles lowly. “Didn’t see that coming. What did you say?” 

“What do you think, moron, I said yes! We’re meeting for dinner at 8 at that Italian restaurant on M Street, you know the one all the cops go to.” 

“Which....is why you’re stuffing your face full of waffles at 4 PM?” 

“I’m stress eating,” Steph says, brandishing a syrup-covered forkful of waffles at him. “Maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn’t have had to go around shooting people all the time.” 

It says a lot about Gotham that with as loud as she said that, no one turned their heads. 

“I like this guy. He’s handsome and a good flirt and he knows what I do. He _understands_ what I do. It’s kind of a big deal, I’m just afraid that I’m not gonna have any idea what I’m doing. I haven’t dated since Tim and it’s not as if that relationship was anywhere approaching successful.” 

“So, you’re asking advice from the guy who’s never even been on a date,” Jason says, idly pushing around the french fries around on his plate. 

“Okay, what’s crawled up your butt, Jason. You’ve been annoying and broody ever since you got back from that mission O sent you on to Star City.” 

Jason blows out a breath, looking out the window at the people passing them by on the street. He shouldn’t be surprised when Steph reaches over and smacks him square in the middle of the forehead, but he’s so lost in how to avoid talking about this that he doesn’t even see it coming. 

“Talk, Jaybird.” 

Jason makes an annoyed face at her but he’s burdened Babs enough with his problems and when it all comes down to it, he and Steph are in the same boat in a lot of ways. 

“You know how Babs sent me to Star City to help Canary out with a mission, right? Well. Harper was there and well. There might have been...”

“Might have been...?” Steph says, raising an expectant eyebrow. 

“Some adrenaline-fueled post-mission, uh, making out.” 

“With the guy you had a crush on when you were a fourteen year old in scaly green underwear and pixie boots? Yeah, I can see now why you wouldn’t want to talk about it.” 

Jason throws a sugar packet at her that she easily dodges. “You’re worse than Babs about this shit, honestly.” 

“So, what happened?” 

“He pulled away and got all stoic and serious talking about responsibility and how he has a lot going on in his life, et fucking cetera, made a run for it, and I went home. No reason to stick around, the mission was done.” 

“I swear to God, all of you are so alike sometimes, it’s disgusting. You, Tim, Bruce -- oh no, I’ve encountered a rogue confusing emotion, can I punch it? What do you want from this guy, do you want to be in a relationship with him?” 

“Fuck no. Could you imagine me trying to be in a relationship with anyone right now? I’m a nineteen year old headcase. Besides, recovered or not, my life’s been lousy enough with addicts as it is.” 

“So, basically you just want his hot muscled vigilante bod.” 

“Sometimes I really wonder if you understand the words that are coming out of your mouth.” 

“Okay, this is what we’re gonna do,” Steph says, clapping her hands together. “You are going to pull your head out of your ass, go to Star City, and tell _him_ that because really, what’s the worst that could happen?” 

“I could lose what’s remaining of the scraps of my dignity?” 

“And _I_ ,” Steph continues, blowing right past his interruption, “will go on my date with the hot detective and not worry about it and just have fun because we work too hard and don’t get nearly enough sleep and the universe owes us.” 

“How am I supposed to get all the way to Star City tonight?” 

Steph grins and it is sharp and devious and he has no idea how no one else sees this side to her when she can look like that. “I think we both know of a fast plane you could borrow.” 

“I love you.”

“I know,” she says, “now shut up and let me finish my waffles.” 

\+ 

Jason lands the Batplane on the roof a few buildings over from Roy’s apartment. He’s pretty sure that Alfred saw him taking it but he’s also pretty sure that Alfred is secretly on his side. Besides, the look on Dick’s face will be completely worth it, even if this plan completely crashes and burns. 

It’s not like anyone other than a Bat can steal it, it’s gotta be the best protected plane in the world. 

He hops from roof to roof until he reaches the right building, jimmies down the fire escape until he reaches the right window, and then knocks and waits. He’s pretty sure, come to think of it, that it’s been at least a year since he’s used a front door like a normal human being. 

“Jason?” Roy asks, incredulous as he opens the window and sticks his head out. 

“Yeah, can I come in?” 

Roy makes a face that Jason is pretty sure can be interpreted as “fucking Bats,” and then steps aside for Jason to come through the window. 

“Soooooo,” Jason says, long and drawn out and suddenly very awkward. 

He shoves his hands into his frayed jean pockets nervously and looks around the apartment. He is suddenly very aware of how threadbare his clothes are, jeans worn in the knees, and how young he must look. 

“Your kid here?” 

“No, Ollie and Dinah like to babysit her every once and awhile, she’s with them tonight.” 

“Well....that’s good,” Jason says, trying to focus on a point somewhere above Roy’s head. “Or else this could have been way more uncomfortable.” 

“What would -- mmmpf,” Roy says, interrupted when Jason pushes off from where he’d been leaning against the windowsill and kisses him. 

There’s an awful long moment when Jason thinks that Roy isn’t going to kiss back and he came all this way for nothing and then Roy gives, and this is what he’d loved about it the first time. When Roy kisses, he’s focused and intense, he reaches up and places both hands on either side of Jason’s face, as if to hold him there, as if to make this last. Roy tastes like citrus, as if he’s just eaten an orange and there’s a joke somewhere in there about gingers but Jason doesn’t have the higher brain function right now to string it together. 

“Look,” Jason says when they finally break away. “You have your own thing and I have my own thing and believe me when I say that I’ve got enough shit going in my life that I can barely make sense of as it is. You don’t have to get your Superman boxers in a twist over, I don’t know, my precious hurt feelings or something.” 

“Thank God,” Roy says, a grin spreading across his face, revealing dimples that Jason definitely, absolutely does not find attractive. “Because I’ve been thinking about doing this all day.” 

“What -- _oh_.” Roy drops to his knees and Jason was already half-hard but now he’s getting all the way there as Roy undoes his fly and shoves his boxers down and out of the way.

“All day, huh?” 

“Yup,” Roy says, before licking a stripe up the underside of Jason’s cock and all other rational thoughts pretty much go out the window. 

_Steph has the best ideas_.

\+ 

The next morning, Jason wakes up in an unfamiliar bed with two hundred pounds of ginger at his back and the sound of his phone chirping somewhere in a pile of clothes on the floor. 

He reaches out a hand and digs into his jacket pocket to pull out his phone, flipping it up to show that he’s gotten a message from Steph. 

_We should always go after older guys, they really know what they’re doing._

Jason laughs so hard he falls off the bed.

**Author's Note:**

> this is totally deeply out of control. the thing about Steph's Batgirl run is that her characterization wasn't entirely in line with what it had been before so I tried to split the difference and find a balance. 
> 
> hand wave continuity this is during a time when Roy and Oliver were getting along. 
> 
> also, yes, I cribbed that line about comfort food, Hugo Reyes is an inspiration.


End file.
